Make it Home
by SassyPrincess14
Summary: Adrianna is just trying to find her family, making her way north proves to be more difficult than she could've imagined. When she stumbles upon another group of survivors, she finds some familiar faces and the thought of leaving becomes much and much harder. Eventual Daryl/OC. I'm not great at summaries, give it a chance! T for language.


"Bailey," a tall brunette called from around the corner in a hushed whisper. The dark haired man hurried to her side and saw just why she had called him over. "We have to go back. This mission is too risky," she stated, frowning. The dead were everywhere around them. They'd never make it to the pharmacy across the street.

In the last week, Adrianna had learned a lot about Atlanta-mostly that the rumors of it being a safe haven were just that. Rumors. This place was probably the furthest thing from safe, she had also learned some of the ins and outs of getting through the city to gather supplies. Adrianna had started her journey in Southern Florida and headed north when everything started. She had crossed paths with a group who were headed there and decided to tag along. Her ultimate goal was to make it back to Ohio, but for now, they needed safety and supplies, sticking with another group was her best bet, for now, anyway.

"Shit, guess we can't get Hanna's inhalers…" he trailed off. Hanna was another member of their group, she was younger, probably in her late teens/early twenties, she had severe asthma. She was one hell of a fighter, but her asthma got in the way of her being an asset to the group, most of the time.

"Sorry, Bailey…" Adrianna trailed off. She felt bad, she really did. She wanted Hanna to have her inhalers so that she could fight and run from danger like everyone else, but she wasn't about to risk her own life for some inhalers. Adrianna knew that Liam depended on her and he was her number one priority. Nobody else.

"It's fine, let's just get back," he sighed and they returned to the bank where they had been camped for the last few days. When they returned, Adrianna made her way over to Hanna, who was sitting on the few blankets she had used for a place to sleep and sighed. Hanna had been recovering from her last asthma attack, so she hadn't been out scavenging much.

"Hey," Adrianna kneeled beside the blonde.

"You didn't find any?" she asked timidly.

"I'm sorry...there were dead ones all around. I couldn't get to them."

"Thank you for trying…" she frowned. Adrianna patted her shoulder and sighed before heading back over to Liam. Liam was her fifteen year old brother. Their close relationship had made some of the other survivors believe that he was her child, but that wasn't the case. Liam and Adrianna's parents had died two years prior to the outbreak and Adrianna had taken full custody of her younger brother at that time, so he was legally her son, in a sense. Not that laws mattered anymore.

"Hey Adri," Liam greeted, he was cleaning the guns the group had gathered. He had always had an interest in weaponry and how it all worked, so this was something he liked to do often.

"Hey, kid," she greeted, ruffling his dark hair. He just rolled his eyes. "What's up?"

He just shrugged. "Did you find the inhalers?" Adrianna shook his head and took a seat across from him at the small table. "How long are we gonna stay here? We can't stay in Atlanta forever. Eventually, those things will get in. You know it."

"Liam, I know. I'll bring it up at the group meeting tonight."

"Good."

Each evening, the group gathered to discuss food and water supply and what their plans for scavenging were for the next day. After they had discussed all of that, Adrianna cleared her throat. "I have something that I'd like to suggest," she said. They all turned to look at her. "I think it's time we came up with a plan to leave Atlanta. We could focus tomorrow on getting fuel and vehicles and go...We know the city isn't safe and every moment we are risking our lives."

"Every moment everywhere we are risking our lives," one of the men, Carter stated. He was in his late twenties and had previously worked in one of the office buildings in Atlanta. Adrianna wasn't sure what he had done, but she didn't really care either. "At least here we have supplies near by."

"If we head further north, or somewhere less populated we'll get away from the dead and be able to hunt or do something else," she stated. "We can find natural supplies." The group seemed to mumble amongst themselves for a few minutes and they didn't seem to have a unanimous decision. "Look, if some of you want to stay here, that's not my problem...but I'm leaving. I can't stay here."

"I'm going with you," Bailey said, his decision was clear and it was final. A few more of the survivors agreed and gathered with Adrianna.

"Then let's come up with a plan," Adrianna said. They moved over to a different section of the bank and started discussing their plans. Tomorrow, they would gather two vehicles and as much gas as they could to get out of the city and then some. They would find supplies and keep moving, stopping for too long would be a mistake.

"I want to bring Hanna," Bailey said, looking at Adrianna. "Nobody here is going to care enough to keep her safe," he added. The brunette slowly nodded.

"Talk to her about it," she replied.

"I know you need to get to Ohio, she won't be in the way of that," he smiled at her softly. Bailey and Adrianna had made quick friends, they were similar in age and both had the same survival state of mind, they wanted to do what was best for people without hindering themselves.

The next day, Adrianna, Liam, Bailey, Hanna, and four others left Atlanta. They had two SUV type cars and they made their way out of the city. They headed north, Adrianna drove the leading car with Bailey navigating and Liam and Hanna in the back seat. The two tried to play I-Spy for a while but quickly fell asleep instead. Adrianna and Bailey talked quietly as the two in the back slept.

"Do you think…" Bailey started to say something and then stopped.

"Do I think what?"

"Do you think making it to Ohio is going to be worth it?" he questioned. Adrianna frowned slightly. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she made it and didn't find who she was looking for.

"I hope so…" she chewed her lip, thinking. She looked down to her left ring finger and silently prayed that she would find them. It had already been nearly a year since all of this started. Liam and Adrianna had been visiting their parents' graves when all of this started, they met up with their previous group about six months after the start near the Florida/Georgia border and from there they had headed into Atlanta, not realizing that it was such a hot zone.

"I'm sorry for bring it up...for bringing _them_ up. I know you don't like to talk much about them."

"It's okay…" She tried not to think so much about her husband and daughter, they had been in Columbus, Ohio visiting her husband's parents when all of this started.

"I'm sure you'll find them, if they're anything like you, they're survivors."

They had run out of gas three days ago. There had been nothing, each time they had stopped to check, in terms of fuel and supplies. It was like someone had gone through and cleared them out. All of them were weak, the dead had attacked right as they ran out of gas and they'd lost one of their group, Amelia-a former tattoo artist from Tampa. Adrianna didn't know her well, she did enjoy looking at the colorful designs on her arms. Now, it felt like it was just a matter of time. Sooner or later, the dead would come knocking again and if they didn't get food soon, they were toast.

They were trekking through the woods, they had hoped to catch something but none of their group was much for hunting and they had Big Billy with them, his footsteps scared off anything that was within distance anyway.

"Adri, Bailey," Hanna's voice caught the group's attention. She started breathing heavily and she couldn't catch her breath. She stopped to lean against a tree and Adrianna and Bailey tried to do what they could to help her calm down. Nothing was working, and it only got worse when the groans of the dead came. The rest of the group started fighting them off, but every time they'd kill one it seemed like three more would show up in their place. Adrianna turned to check on Liam, one was too close for her comfort, she grabbed her knife and killed it before it could touch him.

"Thanks," he murmured. She nodded. Slowly, more and more came, they tried to defend their position, but it was getting too much. Big Billy went down, then Jason, and Riley. Hanna had stopped breathing and she turned rather quickly.

"Bailey, we've got to go," Adrianna said. He agreed and they ran. They ran as fast as they could from the herd. They made it a decent distance so that they could catch their breath. They made it to a set of chain link fencing and stopped. They couldn't go any further, but that wasn't what had stopped them. There was a vast building and set of land, it looked like a prison, but a prison that someone had made into a home. There were crops outside and people...actual people.

"That's close enough," they heard a gruff voice and turned to see a crossbow pointed at all of them.

"We're not trying to hurt anyone," Adrianna spoke first. "There's a herd of walkers not far behind us...we need help," she stated. The dirty man gave them all a once over. His blue eyes looking from person to person, gauging the threat level from all of them. When his eyes scanned over Bailey he stopped.

"Yer bleeding," he said. Bailey looked down at his arm and they all noticed it, an angry looking deep scratch on his forearm.

"Oh shit," he said.

"Bailey," Adrianna felt the tears welling up and he could already feel the fever setting in. They both knew.

"Adri, you've gotta end it for me," he said. The man who had approached them stayed silent.

"You two can come in, he stays," the man said, looking at Adrianna and Liam.

"Adrianna, do it before _they_ get here." Adrianna sighed and pulled out her gun. Bailey dropped to the ground and gave her a weak smile. She knelt beside him and put her gun to his temple.

"Thank you for all you've done...I'm sorry," she said.

"Thank you," he smiled sadly as she pulled the trigger.

"Adri, we've gotta go," Liam grabbed his sister's arm and they followed the man into the prison fence.

"I'm Liam, this is my sister, Adrianna, thank you for taking us in," Liam tried to console his sister as they walked, he spoke to the man so that she didn't have to.

"'M Daryl," was all the man said as he lead them further into the fence.

Adrianna didn't want to spend a long time grieving over Bailey, but in this world, you knew very few people and were close to even fewer, losing those people was always going to hurt, but she couldn't let that distract her from finding her family.

 **AN: Hi, I haven't written a TWD story in quite some time, I really wanted to get back into it, I'm hoping my writing has evolved a bit from my previous works. I hope you guys like this idea...it's going to be a Daryl/OC eventually, but there's much more story to be told before we get to any sort of romance. I am a huge fan of receiving reviews, I like to hear ideas and thoughts. Please don't write mean reviews, it makes me sad! If you have constructive criticism, that's cool! But nothing mean! Thanks for reading!**


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